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EPO revokes Novartis everolimus patent in major victory for generics companies
EP 3 351 246 protects the use of everolimus (a rapamycin derivative) in combination with an aromatase inhibitor. It forms the basis of Novartis’s drug Afinitor, a treatment for breast cancer. The EPO...
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Enlarged Board of Appeal reshuffles cards for EPO rules of priority
The Enlarged Board of Appeal’s decision simplifies the transfer of priority rights for an application to the EPO. Following its latest decision in cases G 1/22 and G 2/22, the EPO now takes it as a...
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EPO Boards of Appeal revoke Edwards Lifesciences’ heart-valve patent
The dispute concerns Edwards Lifesciences’ EP 3 583 920, which protects a prosthetic valve frame. The Examining Division of the EPO granted the patent in 2020. In spring 2021, the Indian medical device...
View ArticleComparison of opposition proceedings at the EPO and revocation actions at the...
Opposition proceedings before the European Patent Office (EPO) are an attractive forum for challenging patents; the procedure is virtually unrivalled worldwide in terms of value for money. The process...
View ArticleEPO new battleground in Nevro and Boston Scientific medical device dispute
Nevro, Boston Scientific and Medtronic are all leaders in the medical devices field. Following heated opposition against the granting of the former’s EP 2 207 587, which began in 2019, the EPO...
View ArticleEBA to consider claim construction questions in heat-not-burn dispute
Proceedings before the EPO Technical Boards of Appeal (BoA) between patent holder Philip Morris and opponent Yunnan Tobacco over a heat-not-burn patent have ended in a request for a referral (case ID:...
View Article“Figures show the EPO Boards of Appeal are highly productive, but it’s only...
The EPO Boards of Appeal’s balance sheet for 2023 does indeed sound excellent. “By the end of 2023 the number of pending cases was reduced to below 5,000 and the number of pending cases older than 30...
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Swerving the matter of granting genetic scissor patents at the EPO
It was supposed to be an interesting autumn at the European Patent Office for the granting of a basic patent on CRISPR/Cas9 technology. The biotech industry was expecting legal clarity following...
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EPO not playing along with KPN’s UPC strategy
KPN’s UPC lawsuit against Oppo, which it only launched in September, has taken a surprising turn just three months later. The Boards of Appeal have declared the patent in suit EP 2 387 844 invalid due...
View ArticleMeril successful at EPO against Edwards Lifesciences in heart-valve battle
The battle between Meril Life Sciences and Edwards Lifesciences concerns EP 3 494 928 B1, which protects a prosthetic heart valve. It is one of several patents owned by Edwards Lifesciences, over which...
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